Effectiveness of soil management strategies for mitigation of N2O emissions in European arable land: A meta-analysis

Soil management strategies involving the application of organic matter(OM) inputs (crop residues, green and livestock manure, slurry, digestate, compost and biochar) can increase soil carbon storage but simultaneously lead to an increase in non-CO2 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions such asN2O. Although multiple meta-analyses have been conducted on the topic of OM input impacts on GHG, none has focused specifically on European arablesoils. This study plugs this gap and can assist policymakers in steering European agriculture in a more sustainable direction. The objective of thismeta-analysis was to quantify how OM inputs of different nature and quality, but also the application strategy, can mitigate soil N2O emissions in differentpedoclimatic conditions in Europe. We quantitatively synthesised the resultsof over 50 field experiments conducted in 15 European countries. Diverse arablecrops, mainly cereals, were cultivated in monoculture or in crop rotationson mineral soils. Cumulative N2O emissions were monitored during periods of30–1070 days in treatments, which received OM inputs, alone or in combination with mineral N fertiliser; and in controls fertilised with mineral N. Theoverall effect of OM inputs had a slight tendency to reduce N2O emissions by10% (n = 53). With the increasing carbon-to-nitrogen ratio of the OM inputs,this mitigation effect became more pronounced. In particular, compost andbiochar significantly reduced N2O emissions by 25% (n = 6) and 33% (n = 8)respectively. However, their effect strongly depended on pedoclimatic characteristics.Regarding the other types of OM inputs studied, a slight N2O emissionreduction can be achieved by their application alone, without mineralN fertiliser (by 16%, n = 17). In contrast, their co-application with mineral N fertiliser elevated emissions to some extent compared to the control (by 14%,n = 22). We conclude that amongst the seven OM inputs studied, the applicationof compost and biochar are the most promising soil management practices, clearly demonstrating N2O emission reduction compared to mineral N fertiliser. In contrast, other OM inputs had a small tendency to mitigate N2Oemissions only when applied without mineral N fertiliser.

Keywords

climate change mitigation, effect size, EJPSOIL, nitrous oxide, organic matter inputs, pedoclimatic characteristics

Citation

Valkama, E., Tzemi, D., Esparza-Robles, U. R., Syp, A., O'Toole, A., & Maenhout, P. (2024). Effectiveness of soil management strategies for mitigation of N2O emissions in European arable land: A meta-analysis. European Journal of Soil Science, 75(3), e13488. https://doi.org/10.1111/ejss.13488

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https://bc.iung.pl/handle/123456789/1235

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